Psicopatologia #037 - A linguagem e suas alterações - Capítulo 22

📚 Purchase the book at a discount: https://amzn.to/4gZFfQH Link to the class summary: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1C... Introduction to the Psychopathology Course: Othon, a clinical psychologist and specialist in anxiety and panic disorders, welcomed participants to his psychopathology course on YouTube, based on the book "Psychopathology and Semiology of Mental Disorders" by Paulo Dalgalarrondo. He emphasized the importance of understanding language and its alterations in psychopathology, highlighting that language is the primary instrument of human communication. Othon also highlighted the need for psychologists to have a good command of their own language in order to access the patient's psyche, especially in online sessions, where understanding regional and cultural meanings is crucial. Dimensions of Language Othon explained the main dimensions of language, starting with the phonic dimension, which refers to phonemes and sound units that alter the meaning of words, such as the "P" sound in "pato" (duck) and "B" in "bato" (I hit). Next, he addressed the semantic dimension, the meaning of words, emphasizing the importance of the psychologist not imposing their own meanings on what the patient says, as each person has their own "world" and understanding. The syntactic dimension was described as the logical organization of words in a sentence, warning about cases of disorder in this dimension. Finally, Othon discussed the dimension of prosody, the "music of speech" that conveys emotions through intonation, exemplifying with the phrase "que ótimo" (how great) which can express joy or sarcasm. Othon detailed the six functions of language according to Roman Jakobson. The referential or cognitive function aims to transmit information about reality, such as "the temperature today is 28º C". The emotive or expressive function expresses the sender's feelings, exemplified by "ouch, that hurts". The connotative or appellative function seeks to influence the receiver's behavior, such as "please close the door". The phatic function serves to initiate, maintain, or end communication and test the channel, using expressions such as "hello, can you hear me?". Metalanguage uses language itself to explain it, such as when asking the meaning of a word. Finally, the poetic or aesthetic function focuses on the form of the message, sound, and rhythm, as in poems or song lyrics. Pathological Language Changes due to Neuronal Injury Othon described aphasias, which are the loss or alteration of language due to brain lesions, citing Broca's aphasia, which causes difficulty in speech production, and Wernicke's aphasia, which results in fluent but meaningless speech with severely impaired comprehension. He also mentioned conduction aphasia, where comprehension and fluency are good, but there is difficulty in repeating words. Other alterations presented include agraphia (loss of writing ability), alexia (loss of reading ability), and dysarthria (difficulty in the motor articulation of speech). Language Changes in Psychopathology Othon explained several language changes observed in psychopathological contexts. He mentioned logorrhea or tachyphasia, which is very rapid and incessant speech, common in manic states, and bradyphasia, slow and difficult speech, typical of severe depressions. Mutism, which is the complete absence of speech, was exemplified by selective mutism in children. Othon also described phenomena such as echolalia (repetition of the interlocutor's last words), palilalia (repetition of the patient's own last words), logoclonia (repetition of the last syllable), and verbal stereotypy (monotonous repetitions without communicative meaning). He cited coprolalia, the involuntary emission of obscene words, as in Tourette's Disorder, and alogia, the impoverishment of language common in schizophrenia. Othon concluded with glossolalia, the production of sounds that resemble an unknown language, and neologisms, the creation of new words, both of which can occur in schizophrenia. Language in Specific Disorders and Clinical Assessment: Othon detailed the language alterations in schizophrenia, characterized by disorganization leading to a "word salad," and in dementias, such as Alzheimer's, which causes difficulty finding words and empty speech. In mood disorders, he described slow and monotonous speech in depression, and accelerated speech with assonant associations in mania. For the semiotics of language, Othon highlighted the importance of clinical assessment, which involves observing speech production (speed, spontaneity, volume) and speech quality (coherence, comprehensibility, grammar, presence of specific alterations such as echolalia, neologisms, paraphasias). He emphasized that speech observation is a crucial tool for collecting data, assisting in diagnosis, and assessing the patient's mood.